4/3/18 Show feat. Matt Weinberg on Algorithms, Incentives, and Game Theory

Trouble with the Mixcloud embed? The live show can be found here.

Science news and events started out the show. Brian spoke on new research on concussions and Stevie on the Chinese space station that fell to Earth recently. 45 minutes in, Professor Matt Weinberg came on the mic to speak on his work as a theoretical computer scientist. He researches mechanism design – these are algorithms that take user incentives in to account. He considers human decision making and economics to design algorithms to guide the user to interact with the algorithm in the optimal way. He uses the example of online dating, ad auctions on sites like Facebook and Google, and cryptocurrencies.

Science News:

Adrian Cho, ScienceMag, “Concussions originate from ringing deep inside the brain, modeling suggests“
Sol Han, CNN, “China’s Tiangong-1 space lab plummets to Earth, breaks up over Pacific”

8/29/17 Show feat. Christa Baker on what fruit flies hear, and Matt Grobis on doing research

In this episode of These Vibes, Stevie speaks with neuroscientist Christa Baker about fruit fly mating songs and electric fish — and for each, how she is tracking their neural pathways to learn how their brains undergo the complicated process communication.

Additionally, animal behaviorist Matt Grobis comes on the air to talk about the nitty gritty “devil’s chess match” of doing research — the good and the bad.

Science News:

Narwhals are helping NASA understand melting ice and rising seas by Adam Popescu in Bloomberg
Leather grown using biotechnology is about to hit the catwalk in the Economist

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